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Showing posts with label Hellenic Police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hellenic Police. Show all posts

March 21, 2021

Sunday, March 21, 2021 - ,,, No comments

Recovered: Greek authorities recover a 5th century BCE headless marble statue of a seated male


Following a multi-month investigation, authorities with the Hellenic Police have recovered an extraordinary 5th century BCE statue believed to have possibly come from a temple pediment in the wider area of ​​the Acropolis.   The thirty-seven (37) centimetres high torso of a young man was being shopped by an, as yet, unnamed resident from Corinth, who was stated to have been actively engaged in trying to sell the ancient artefact for 100,000 euros.  

Once the object was potentially authenticated, via collaboration with the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports, the ancient sculpture was seized and the Corinth seller was taken into custody on Wednesday by the Security Directorate of Attica.  On March 19, the artefact was handed over by the Commander of the Security Directorate of Attica, Lieutenant General Petros Tzeferis to the Director of the Documentation and Protection of Cultural Property, Vasiliki Papageorgiou.  


According to Greek Law No. 3028/2002, “On the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in General” (article 56), destruction, damage or alteration of a monument, as well as theft or embezzlement of monuments, (articles 53 and 54 respectively, are punishable acts in Greece.  Currently, a criminal case has been filed against the seller, on suspicion of antiquities smuggling, by the Prosecutor's Office, while an investigation continues to determine how the artefact came to be in the seller's possession and who the potential final recipients of the confiscated antiquity were to have been. 


Video footage released by the Hellenic Police demonstrates that the artefact shows signs of having been buried, meaning the likelihood that this piece was from a long-established collection are slim.  Likewise, the artefacts seems to show chipping and intentional damage likely from extraction tools used during its removal. 


July 17, 2020

Friday, July 17, 2020 - ,, 2 comments

Greek Police arrest accountant for the possession of 5,533 ancient coins and other antiquities.

Image Credit:  Hellenic Police Services
On Wednesday, 15 July 2020 a 64-year-old accountant was taken into custody in Greece following a police operation involving Department of Cultural Heritage and Antiquities of the Security Directorate of Thessaloniki. The unnamed coin collector was from Dráma (Greek: Δράμα), a city in northeastern Greece in Macedonia, who is said to have amassed a substantial collection, which included 5,533 ancient coins dating to the Iron Age, the Archaic, Classical, Roman, Hellenistic, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods as well as 70 non-monetary artefacts dating as far back as the 3rd century BCE.  Articles in Greek refer to the collector's home as seemingly a private museum.  

Image Credit:  Hellenic Police Services
Now before the coin collecting folk start to say, he was simply protecting and preserving and should be allowed to collect...

The protection of cultural heritage has long been a State responsibility since the early days of the modern Greek State. According to the Constitution of Greece, “the protection of the natural and cultural environment constitutes a duty of the State and a right of every person” (Government Gazette, 85/A/18-4-2001, Art. 24).  The Greek government has a comprehensive and detailed system of protection regarding movable and immovable monuments and artefacts. 

Image Credit:  Hellenic Police Services
As such, the legal holder or owner of movable antiquities may be recognized as a collector, and issued a license, upon application through the Minister of Culture, after an opinion by the Central Archaeological Council (KAS).  This license can be granted according to the character and the importance of the collection and upon certain conditions being met by the applicant. 

Those include providing the necessary guarantees for the protection, safeguarding and preservation of the objects forming the collection and providing the necessary guarantees for compliance with the other duties of the collector.  One thing that will surely not get you a license in Greece, is if the person in question is an antiquities dealer, or an employee or partner of a natural or legal person with a similar business.

The fact that the Greek authorities took this man into custody, likely means he failed to meet the thresholds for the above. 

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